I always prefer to run outside, the cold air keeps me from getting sweaty and gross and it always feels like I’m getting somewhere. When there is ice on the ground, I have no other option than to go to the gym. Luckily for me there is a gym in my building that is quite nice, but I’ll admit that it’s proximity has not inspired me to work out more. Mostly the fact that it is close makes me feel like a schmoo for not being in tip top shape but let us be real here, I work out so I can eat more cheese. That is all.
This past week had a few icy days so many of my runs have been forced onto the treadmill and my first lesson learned was timing. What I mean is time of day because most of the day I can go and have the whole place to myself. I don’t need four treadmills but having other people on the machines around me has proven to be an issue.
Most recently I put off my exercise until 6pm, a time when everyone who works a 9-5 job is now home and somehow motivated. When I enter the room the treadmill all the way to the right was out of service and two were being used, naturally the only open one was right smack in between them.
The girl running on the far left was fit, trim and running at 7.5mph; the guy now to my right was running at 10mph. I will say that again in case anyone feels they misread something: he was running 10 miles an hour. As a point of reference let me state that up until this point I was running at 5mph for my longer runs and only because I knew anything less was sad, not because I found this extra doable. I was intimidated and I didn’t feel like I could run my normal 5mph with these two nut jobs on either side of me flapping their legs at the speed of light. I did my five minute intervals at 6mph and while I didn’t stop or die, I wanted to (stop or die). Each second felt like being forced to carry 100 screaming babies up Mount Everest all barfing and pooing. Maybe after the fact this seems like a bit of an exaggeration but I can assure you at the time I was in it and nothing has ever been stupider.
Did I feel proud that I did it? Was I pleased that these two fiends had pushed me to go faster and do better? Nope. Not at all. It was so lame.
Learning to be Funny 
3 month old post but I’m always late to the party. I can so relate to that… I can only do like 5.2 for anything more than 5 minutes at a time. The one time last week I made the mistake of going to the gym at rush hour, I felt compelled to bump it up to 6. I wish you could only read the display from straight on. I don’t need to know that kid over there is running 10mph, isn’t it intimidating enough that the treadmill sounds like it’s falling apart with every footfall?